Never before have leadership, equity, and social justice been more important and/or critical to the mission of public universities and institutions of higher education. The twenty-first century has ushered in a period of instantaneous feedback, including live newsfeeds, reviews of goods and services, and online streaming events, as well as experiences. Anyone with a smartphone has access to millions of individuals with whom to report his/her affirmation and/or dissatisfaction with individuals, products, or services. Colleges and universities have not been immune to this current climate. The purpose of this volume is to "critique" the current state of American higher education through the lenses of critical theory and critical pedagogy. This volume seeks to impact higher education preparation programs by filling the void in the literature from voices in the field. The contributing authors are a diverse array of scholars and practitioners who are committed to moral and shared leadership, equity and access, and social justice.

This volume raises critical questions about the qualities of democratic educational leadership during a time when the promise of democratic education and public life risks being abandoned, forgotten, and emptied of meaning. A diverse chorus of scholars in education take on this issue by analyzing the cultural context of educational leadership in the age of No Child Left Behind, by offering democratic counter-narratives of educational leadership, and by deconstructing popular culture representations of educational leaders. In doing so, they re-situate leadership within a political context and link it to struggles over social justice and human freedom. The contributing scholars also radically re-think educational leadership in ways that include teachers, university-based educators, and scholars as leaders.